Studying parameters affecting the thinning rate during heat-assisted incremental sheet forming of the lightweight material

Incremental sheet forming (ISF) is a promising sheet forming process and becomes a worthy alternative to the traditional sheet forming processes. ISF has used in manufacturing small batch or customised sheet components in various industrial sectors. One of the main challenges in this process is how to deals with hard to form materials like lightweight materials. Heat-assisted ISF processes have suggested improving the formability at warm or hot conditions. Among all heat-assisted ISF processes, frictional stir-assisted Single Point Incremental Forming (SPIF) recommended to deform AA6061-T6 sheets. The aim is to investigate the impact of the process parameters on the thinning rate of the final components. A Taguchi technique and varying wall angle conical frustum (VWACF) test have employed to conduct the experiments. Furthermore, analysis of variance (ANOVA) utilised to find the influence of these parameters on the thinning rate. The results show that spindle speed is the main parameter affected the formability of AA6061-T6 sheets in terms of thinning rate. The percentage contribution of this parameter was 90.53%. The maximum thinning is 59.56 % at a rotation speed, feed rate, step size, and tool diameter of 1200 rpm, 500 mm/min., 0.2 mm, and 10 mm, respectively.